Me and Mary Lou
Were married right out high school
Her soon to have a baby
Me with nothing much to do

Didn't get much of an education
From the high school social scene
Life is now one big social frustration
If you know what I mean

Got a job on the dead shift
Down at the Jiffy mart
When Mary Lou went to labor
Emptying out her shopping cart

Got the call at 2am
Telling me I had a boy
I went straight to isle 3
And bought him his first of many broken toys

Cause broken toys prepare us
For the book of broken dreams
That most of us later in life
Tend to sit and read

Got the call not that much later
Telling me Mary Lou had died
Pretty shortly after that
My boy let out his first of many cry's

I wish I could have been there
Though not much I could have done
Except to give last minute comfort
To the mother of my son

Still down at the Jiffy mart
Whats a man to do
With a now 2 year old by your side
Sitting on a stool

He loves to hear the stories
Of when his mom and I were young
But he always adds the saddest end
When he asks why she is gone

I tell him she's still living
Only now she's in our hearts
I'm not sure that he believes me
As that's when the tear drops start

But life goes on as always
Like the purchases that I ring
With both us boys missing Mary Lou
If you know what I mean

The sound,
The hour,
The bells,
The taste of blood,
The fingers,
The black,
The hands,
The dead.
The toll,
The head,
The soul,
The bled,
The heart,
The skin,
The dark,
The dim.
The time,
The day,
The chime,
The way,
The eyes,
The fate,
The life,
The state.
The mind, the bones, the flesh, the man,
The signs, the homes, the wretch, the hands!
The bells, the bells, the creaking steps of two feet!
The ring, the ring, the point where the knife and skin meet!
The dead, the end, the red, the street.
The two eyes that no lies or life will ever meet.

I have a sweet tooth
   for chocolate
   chip cookies
   tonight.

And you told me--
   you have not
   even a
   bite.

But I say,
   darling,
   your lips
   are just as right.